One 7th District Republican Congressional candidate says he is the victim of dirty tricks by his opponent. Former City-County Council member Ron Franklin says comments made in a recent interview about gays and some individuals on disability are being taken out of context.

In an interview conducted last month, Franklin was asked about gay rights and social security. On the gay rights issue, Franklin says the Indianapolis city county council was wrong to pass the human rights ordinance. He says marriage should be between a man and a woman, however he concludes the interview by saying “he likes it better when they [gays] kept it in the closet.”

Later in the interview after touching on other issues he comments on people on social security disability (SSI). He says he’s seen too many people getting disability and tells his office manager to not rent to them. Franklin manages the Mosell Sanders public housing complex on east 38th Street in Indianapolis.

Franklin says he knew he was being set up by his opponents so he gave answers that weren’t to be taken seriously.

He blames the entire matter on the Eric Dickerson campaign, which he says has tried to use a number of dirty tricks to derail his campaign. Already the two sides are hinting at legal action against each other over the interview.

The implications of this are far reaching. By making his comments, as the slated (party-backed) nominee, Franklin has put the party in an awkward position. They must either denounce his comments and possibly his candidacy, or appear to be endorsing what he said. Thereby giving an opening to their Democratic counterparts who will definitely pounce on this by putting out news releases and making public statements that Franklin should get out of the race and his party should call him on the carpet.

Trust me, the bomb just went off. Now we have to see how much damage it does.

Wheeww! If Mike Murphy didn’t need another big-time embarrassment to deal with it. Can you share with us any detail on who conducted the interview?

http://www.wxnt.com Abdul

It was a Republican precinct committeman. Go figure.

Dustin

Honestly, I do not think it is a big deal. Maybe it will have some major implications, but not if people have some sense about them. In the interview, Ron seemed to be straight up and gave quick and honest responses. Should people we appease those are scamming the system? Absolutely not. Should homosexuals have special rights? Absolutely not. Having one’s most private issues out on the clothesline does not seem wise. Ron has a right to his opinions. At least he was being honest… and that does not make him a homophobe.
Related, however, what is the deal with the kid gloves for the mayor, but being so aggressive with a GOP candidate, Abdul? I have quite a bit of respect for what you do, but this seems a bit out of character. You have whole-heartedly backed Indy Works for the mayor, but saying his figures are inaccurate is an understatement. All of the secondary research that Peterson used to support his position contradicted it. By all accounts, this will be raising taxes on everyone outside of the old city limits. And the $30M he is after is a stored emergency fund that the townships have established… that money will be gone in two years… just like the grant money for law enforcement. The only reason the Indy Chamber supports it is because it lowers the tax liability for the downtown businesses.
I do not think you have been as objective as you typically are… especially when you contrast your position on these two issues.

Abdul

Actually there’s more to it than that. And we can debate Indy Works until the cows come home. If you’re saying by expanding IPD you create a taxing district thus raising taxes, I can argue the people who live in the townships where an IPD officer has a take-home car have been enjoying free police service. If you want to go down that road. It’s funny, Republicans call me a Democrat over Ron Franklin and Democrats call me a Republican over Meline Kennedy. I must be doing something right.

Anonymous

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….. boy…..Abdul that was a HUGE political time bomb. Almost as big as the Kennedy thing nobody in the real media picked up.

What’s next?

Peterson uses prepositional phrase, fails to use verb!

Brizzi, Daniels have no hair!

Franklin j-walks!

Abdul

But you listened…

Anonymous

Yes, me and the 25 other middle-aged Republican white guys.

Abdul

hopefully you’re a millionaire like them.

Matthew

I’ve always been impressed that I haven’t been able to totally pin you down to one side or the other.

It almost makes you look like a fair and unbiased journalist.

Abdul

Actually I am biased, against stupid things that waste taxpayers’ money. Thanks for the compliment.

Dustin

Your argument about the benefits that township residents receive from IPD officers driving their take-home cars is valid. However, I think it is more than outweighed by all of the deputies that have to go through downtown when they take people into jail, make court appearances, go to work at the jail, provide security at different events downtown, etc. Further, on that same token, how many deputies live in the township that they provide service? They drive their take-home cars through other townships. That standpoint is basically a wash. They main points about Indy Works are these: the Mayor’s secondary research references all contradict his position (how can you cite a reference to support your position when it disagrees with your position?), the savings he suggests are much less (about 13% of his estimates), what savings could be attained could be done without consolidation, and his real motivation is the emergency funds of the townships (by using these he will have funds to make up for his deficits for two years… just long enough to get past re-election next year).

Honestly, I think you do a great job, and I never called you a Democrat, nor would I suggest it. I think you try to do what makes sense. However, I think your judgement on this is scewed because you just don’t like the idea of township government. That is fine, and you are entitled to your opinion… and I respect it.

Peterson wants Indy Works for two reasons, it saves his seat one more go around, and it limits the Republican influence that township government has. That is why he did not like the idea of the mayor-trustee board to manage the consolidated fire department. His intent is to appear as if he is making the common sense choice, but he is really trying to consilidate power and gerrymander the electorate.

Randy

OMG– you people are really worried more about taxes than his comments and position? This man manages a public-housing facility and is allowed to continue –even though he is willing to actively discriminate against gays and the disabled? Not to mention the fact that he should be a total embarassment to the Party?

*Sigh* I guess Marion County IS a Democratic stronghold for good.

Anonymous

Huge Abdul. HUGE BABY.

Its watergate.

Its Lewinsky.

Its a Republican who doesn’t like gay people.

John Handley

Nice show, Abdul. Ron Franklin can cry all he wants; who DOESN’T know a tape recorder means replaying of your comments? It wasn’t a hidden recorder, was it?

As for Indy Works, here’s my take: Mayor Peterson has risked far more than he could ever gain, politically, by proposing this consolidation. His poll numbers are still solid as a rock.

Dustin, you need to study your political facts a little harder. Unigov, the ultimate piower grab, accomplished only half the picture, and it was put forth by Republicans solely to make the city look bigger and to make sure Republicans controlled city-county government. It also saved some money, but it cost money, too…predictably, they left all the hard decisions to future generations: schools, police, fire, poor relief, etc. And as for the “decisions” Uni-gov leaders made for almsot 40 years: it wasn’t hard to avoid many tax increases, when you ignore federal court jail mandates, the city’s horrid watrer/drainage problems, etc. It was sinfully inadequate government, at least as far as critical government services go. Let those expensive, obvious needs piole up over 20, 30 or 40 years, and you can avoid tax inreases, but you pass along to future generations the inflated price of these required improvements. Under any measuring stick, that’s shameful and irresponsible.

The Repulbican ploy worked for almost 40 years. Now, natural demographics have taken over. This is a Democratic county.

Township government, by its very nature, is expensive and, while, perhaps, closer to the people and friendly (debateable), all its critical functions can be performed by government at one notch up the power structure, and cheaper. How cheaper? Liars figure, and figures lie, but common sense says considerably cheaper. The foolish study put out by the Republican township czars, shoddily-conducted by a right-leaning “CPA” firm, was shameful in its use of “facts.” It appears the Mayor’s folks did some inaccurate math, too.

The foot-dragging and whining we hear from the township czars…this is, evidently, what it sounds like when an old elephant dies.

Drive a stake through its heart, put it out of its misery, and let’s get on with the 21st century. In this decade and future years, I want govenrment to take care of critical services, find efficiencies, and slay sacred bureaucratic cows.

The next tough, expensive problem to solve? IPS. And that will make all this Indy Works nonsense look like a romp in the park. It’s got all the makings of another Disneyland: sacred cows, neighborhood schools that need closed, tens of a badly-broken system that really can’t survive as it is…
sounds like fun, huh?

GM

“natural demographics” have taken over…??

Dustin

So, you are saying what is good for the goose is good for the gander? Just because something happened 40 years ago does not mean that something else should happen today. I am very aware of Unigov, and what happened. If you think it was such a bad deal, then why would you want to extend it? That certainly makes no sense.

Your perception of township government being expensive it inaccurate. The other cities were studied, and consolidation cost money (just like you said in regards to Unigov). You can get rid of all the township assessors and centralize the process, but when that happen, the centralized staff will increase and field offices with either be created, or people will loose the benefits of the close government. After studying the other cities, it was found that assessing in Marion County is less expensive, per parcel, than any of the cities that consolidated.

I fully understand that reducing duplicate positions and functions is cheaper, and insulting someone’s intelligence is not very dimplomatic. However, as you have mentioned, Unigov consolidated many things. In fact, many of the infrastructure pieces involved in the Police/Fire services were consolidated. The most efficient things have already been done. You also seem to be missing some arguments from Econ 101… economies of scale. Some functions may be duplicated, but that may be because it takes that duplication to get it done… Economies of scale do not only work one way.

I agree that IPS needs addressed, but just as with everything else, I refuse to fix IPS at the expense of my township school district. The township school districts have plenty of their own problems… but they are child’s play compared to IPS’s problems.